Daniel Suarez’s first pole in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series certainly didn’t come how he expected.
Suarez, who originally ended up third in Saturday’s qualifying session at Pocono Raceway, ended being declared the pole winner for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 after the first and second-place cars failed inspection.
Kevin Harvick had posted the fastest speed in the final round and Kyle Busch was second. In post-qualifying inspection, Harvick’s No. 4 Ford failed the body scan and Busch’s No. 18 Toyota failed the chassis station.
Both Harvick and Busch will have to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field.
The pole is the first of Suarez’s career.
This is the second time this season NASCAR has used these impound rules for the condensed Cup weekend schedule.
Cars are not required to go through pre-qualifying inspection but if any car failed its first attempt through post-qualifying inspection, it would have its qualifying speed disallowed. Additional failures would result in the loss of team members.
The following 11 cars also failed inspection and will also start the race from the rear of the field: Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon, William Byron, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Kasey Kahne.
In addition, the teams of Harvick, Kahne, Logano and Menard had their respective car chiefs ejected for the remainder of the weekend for failing inspection at least twice. Harvick and Kahne’s teams also were docked 10 points for failing inspection three times each.
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